Because She Asked: The Doctor's POV of Tunnels
by royslady51
Summary: No one not desperate would use a former Time Agent as a messenger service. No one not constrained to have a package delivered would even consider it...but this one is extremely Time Sensitive...and marked Fragile, Handle with Care. What has he got into now? ONE SHOT


Summary: No one not desperate would use a former Time Agent as a messenger service. No one not constrained to have a package delivered would even consider it...but this one is extremely Time Sensitive...and marked Fragile, Handle with Care. What in the hell has he got now?

This story is a companion piece to Tunnels that opens after Rose has begun Crossing, but in a world that ALL of the Daleks in existence were destroyed while she was Bad Wolf...she has left Pete's World to begin the journey mentioned in Tunnels...but she hasn't left him alone...exactly.

Backstory: Rose cheated a lot before leaving Pete's World. She uses a hopper to put her feet on the ground around London when she and Early Ten were there...and while they were out, used the TARDIS' communication system to get Jack on his manipulator (she's the reason it broke, incidentally) and yank him over to the new universe. All the Weight of What Must Be prevents her return, it doesn't prevent Jack's so she gives him a precious burden from her Present, to give the Doctor, along with directions for it, after Canary Wharf and sent him home...the manipulator broke on re-entry.

ONE SHOT

**Because She Asked**

"Jack, I...can't."

"You have to. Rose left me something to give to you...and she broke so many time laws to do it...you have to. She asked."

"What...?"

Jack explained exactly what Rose had done to make sure this 'package' was in the Doctor's hands as soon as possible after Canary Wharf...and it had taken the Master's torments to re-establish the bond between the two men enough that Jack would ask this. He really wanted to keep the treasure Rose had left for himself, but he could see what was going on with the Tenth and he truly needed this little piece of Rose.

"Do you know...of course you do."

"She told me she'd hitch a ride with the pair of you in your own Zero Room if I didn't come. Don't know what that is but she thought it was a threat."

"It was. Ouchie. Yeah. That could've been bad. Alright, if it's that important, I'm coming. Stand back away from the rails and keep your hands visible."

"Can't. I'm holding your prezzie."

**:WHO: **

Elizabeth Rose Dokta was a three year old handful with big brown eyes, hair of gold and a tongue that pretty well stayed in her teeth, as much as she smiled. She popped her 'p's and understood Tosh's computer talk fine...and learned the many languages of the Fifty First Century that Jack taught her. She memorized the laws of the Shadow Proclamation as well...she in short, was impossible. Rose had left her Doctor her daughter, her halfling child of the human soul and Time Lord brain and who was rapidly reaching a point that humans were running out of things they could teach her...she needed her father.

The Tenth Doctor took one look at this tiny girl and knew why Rose had risked so much to get this precious burden into his hands. The impact of her juvenile mind on his mature one was unmistakable. He moved forward to where Jack was pointing at him to the small child who already had her tiny hands up, wanting him to pick her up.

He did. He cradled this one, final, precious gift his pink and yellow human had given him, this...pink and yellow daughter, this child in whose eyes and in whose mind he could see and recognize so much of her mother's spirit, against his chest and let the last tears of mourning fall.

"If she couldn't come home and she couldn't stay there, where did she go, Jack?"

"She gathered Crossing Strength and Journeyed. This section of the Wall...it was closed to her Crossing and so she left in another direction. She couldn't take Beth and told me you needed her more. She felt that the best thing was to send you your daughter and since the Crossing can only ever be one person...it was the only thing to do. She Crossed the Path as soon as she laid Beth in my arms."

The Doctor shuddered once, cuddling his daughter who was already petting his head in distress from what she sensed from him, and nodded. "She's gone. Bad Wolf will make sure she finds me. _Won't_ be this me. If it were this me, the Wall _would_ have let her Cross, so it won't be this me. But...she'll find me. She's...Seeking, Jack. Not just Journeying, she's Seeking. Long after I really, finally, really die, many thousands of centuries, I'll be reborn somewhere else, a different Universe, somewhere. That's how it works for us, see. She'll find me there. Gonna be a long time, but I'll be asleep for most of it, and the first Ten bodies...won't know about her. So I won't miss her like I do here." He paused, feeling the aching loneliness lightening at the touch of her daughter, looking up at him so sadly. "I thought, three more bodies to get through, you know Jack? Three more, until I can rest. And she knew it. Had to. She knew what I'd do."

"She told Beth to take care of you and keep you out of trouble. She thought that maybe, just maybe, you'd do the domestic thing for your baby girl, if not for her."

"She would. Gonna be a good four hundred years before Beth can keep up with me, you know? Don't have any choice, out of trouble me, can't risk Beth. And yes, yes, I will. House, carpet, windows. And when my time _is_ done, the TARDIS will be Beth's."

"What will you do?"

"Do? Establish my creds to your former buddies and then start sending them all over the place as they are needed...instead of doing it myself, of course. Well, that, and move to Florida to raise my child. England's much too busy, these days."

"The planet?"

"Oh no, of course not. However will I drive UNIT spare if I'm off somewhere else like that? Oh no...the USA's Florida. Orlando, actually. UNIT keeps a few houses just out by Disney...I'll commandeer one. I will be domestic and raise my daughter...because _Rose_ asked me to. I frightened her away from asking for _herself_...and now she's gone and it will be a _very_, _**very**_ long time before I see her again. I will _not_ do that to Beth. _She's_...she's all I have left of Rose. So, I'll do it. Because she asked."

_**~ Finis ~**_


End file.
